Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails

September 18, 2006

If you’d been dropped from the sky, and had landed in the Bear Mountain parking lot on September 16th, you’d have thought your eyes were deceiving you—a mirage likely. But no, like nomads in the Sahara Desert, upwards of 4,000 spectators converged at the third annual mountain-oasis known as Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails.

Tent City was in full effect as the industry’s finest turned out for the event to preview new products, and then toss that shit into the hungry clutches of the crowd. The sun deck was packed as was the bar, and the smell of grilled meats filled the air. Stunts were going down on an all-new setup comprised of two stair features—a down rail, and a down flat down rail. Two warm up ledges—a flat down, and a down flat down. A large down bar in the middle—accessible only by a lexan, skate-style launch ramp. And finally two massive spines connected by coping in the middle creating a seriously unsafe transfer gap.

First place in the men’s division and $5,000 went to rail jam vet, and Vermont native Yale Cousino. Yale sealed it up with sunrise-like consistency, and a deep bag of hammers, which included flawless Andrecht plants atop the lexan spines, and a watertight back 270/270 off on the staircase rail. Second place went to Wrightwood local, Kyle Lopiccolo who tackled the spine transfer, and stomped a sincere, alley-oop gap 270 on the down-flat-down staircase rail. Minnesota’s Joe Sexton rounded out third place. Sexton looks like a mongoose on his snowboard, with fearless on, off and mid rail spin combos, as well as his relentless transfers over the top of the spine.

Third times a charm, and Laura Hadar is no exception to that rule as she buried the female competition, took home $2,500, and nabbed her third first place victory at HD&HR with hard-charging gap to’s on the staircase kink among other hammers. Second place went to Bear loc’ Melissa Evans who could’ve put fear into Bone Crusher. Her assault was ruthless and unwavering—stair massages included.

After the event wrapped, the sun had set, and the temperature dropped to what felt like freezing, it was time for movie watching. Mack Dawg’s People, and Follow Me Around premiered alongside Bear Mountain’s flick, Join Us. The event went off without a hitch—we ate hot dogs, drank Sparks, basked in the sun, and partook some top notch shredding and partying. Big thanks to Marty, Kim, Justin, everyone at Bear Mountain, and everyone who came out and got loose.